Page 1 of 1 [ 3 posts ]
ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 67
Gender: Male
Posts: 35,649
Location: Long Island, New York
16 Jan 2022, 10:21 am
Quote:
On Friday, leaders from several disability advocacy groups held a call with Walensky in which the CDC director apologized for her “hurtful” remarks last week on “Good Morning America.” Advocates in turn demanded a public apologyfrom Walensky to the disability community.
In last week’s GMA interview, Walensky described a study of people who had been vaccinated, saying: “The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities. So really, these are people who were unwell to begin with. And yes, really encouraging news in the context of omicron… we’re really encouraged by these results.”
People with disabilities were outraged, using the hashtag on Twitter #MyDisabledLifeIsWorthy, started by activist Imani Barbarin, to call out the remarks for having “pushed the narrative of vulnerable people’s lives being disposable” and implying that their “lives aren’t worth protecting.”
After Friday’s call, Walensky tweetedher thanks to disability advocates for the meeting, saying she “look[s] forward to our continued engagements to address the disparities and inequities made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The CDC’sreadoutof the call noted that Walensky had “apologized for the hurtful, yet unintentional, statement pertaining to COVID-19 deaths and comorbidities,” and committed the CDC to “regular engagements” with the disability community.
In a letter put out Thursday, over 140 disability advocacy groups noted that people with disabilities and preexisting conditions have been disproportionately killed by COVID-19 and that “each of these deaths is a devastating loss to families, friends and to our broader communities.”
The groups’ demands include regular, ongoing meetings between CDC leadership and disability groups, as well as a call for the CDC to center people with disabilities and other communities disproportionately impacted by the virus in all of its COVID-19 guidance to the public.
In last week’s GMA interview, Walensky described a study of people who had been vaccinated, saying: “The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities. So really, these are people who were unwell to begin with. And yes, really encouraging news in the context of omicron… we’re really encouraged by these results.”
People with disabilities were outraged, using the hashtag on Twitter #MyDisabledLifeIsWorthy, started by activist Imani Barbarin, to call out the remarks for having “pushed the narrative of vulnerable people’s lives being disposable” and implying that their “lives aren’t worth protecting.”
After Friday’s call, Walensky tweetedher thanks to disability advocates for the meeting, saying she “look[s] forward to our continued engagements to address the disparities and inequities made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The CDC’sreadoutof the call noted that Walensky had “apologized for the hurtful, yet unintentional, statement pertaining to COVID-19 deaths and comorbidities,” and committed the CDC to “regular engagements” with the disability community.
In a letter put out Thursday, over 140 disability advocacy groups noted that people with disabilities and preexisting conditions have been disproportionately killed by COVID-19 and that “each of these deaths is a devastating loss to families, friends and to our broader communities.”
The groups’ demands include regular, ongoing meetings between CDC leadership and disability groups, as well as a call for the CDC to center people with disabilities and other communities disproportionately impacted by the virus in all of its COVID-19 guidance to the public.
I guess I am tone deaf but to me nothing she said devalued people. The “encouraging news” is that the vaccines work. The anti vaxxers are using cases of severe COVID in vaccinated people to say the vaccines are useless or poison. People with four comorbidities are vulnerable to severe disease of any kind. That is a fact not a value judgement. Anti vaxxers saying that the real person needs to be rescued from vaccine caused autism is offensive. Walensky debunking anti vaxxers is bad somehow
.
16 Jan 2022, 10:59 am
16 Jan 2022, 7:43 pm
